Inspiring Conversations with Kenny Schick of Basement 3 Productions

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Kenny Schick.

Hi Kenny, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
I got started in music long ago, and I first learned saxophone in elementary school. It really became evident that music was what I wanted to do when my dad brought home a beat-up department store electric guitar from a poker game–his friend gave it to him thinking that my brother might like it. I liked it so much that I ended up in a rock band just a few months later, using what little skill I had at that time but spending all my free time improving. The band got pretty good, and all I could dream of was performing on big stages.

That lasted 4 or 5 years, and soon, I found my interests moving from rock and roll to jazz and my saxophone. I worked hard at sax and got pretty good, playing casuals and being accepted into the state community college honor band–this was in California, where I spent most of my life until moving to Nashville in 2017. 1984 saw me switch directions again: I was asked to join a band with some musicians I admired, but on guitar. The music was a crazy and exciting mix of post-punk, world music, and funk. That band took off quickly, and soon, we were sharing stages with bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers (in their early days), Primus, and Fishbone.

Coming to a sad and unexpected end in the early 90s, I was left wondering what I might do. I found a lot of bands interested in my saxophone skills, so at that time, I ended up playing sax in a bunch of Reggae, Ska, and Blues bands. Some of those bands shared stages with No Doubt, Chris Isaak, Los Lobos, Black Eyed Peas, and many others. During this time, I had put together a decent home studio, as I always loved recording, writing, and experimenting with my own ideas. I released several solo albums under the name Basement 3, and I always played with several bands at a time and worked full-time in the photo industry.

In 2005, I got tired of playing with bands and started seeing if I could play music solo–just me and an acoustic guitar. That led me to the world of singer-songwriters, and it also led me to Australia, where I went to visit a woman I’d met online who would eventually become my wife. I spent the better part of a year there and wrote and recorded a very stripped-down singer-songwriter album. Upon returning home, I wanted to find a way to make a living doing something musical on my own terms, so I started recording music for other singer-songwriters, as I had the recording skills and could play numerous instruments to help be their ‘band’ and build up their songs.

I found I was good at this, and around 2007, I had inadvertently started Basement 3 Productions. Still in California, Sabine, the woman from Australia, came to hang out with me in my country. We started a band doing her music, and she encouraged me to keep going with the production. Along with teaching, photography gigs, production, and graphic design, we were making a living with Basement 3 Productions. Pretty soon, I was so busy with the production stuff I had to let go of teaching and photography.

We ran the company from the Santa Cruz mountains in California from 2009 until the Bay Area got impossible financially, and then we made a pretty quick decision in September of 2017 to just head off to Nashville–we didn’t know anybody, and we were not ‘spring chickens’, so it was a bit of a crap shoot, but it’s worked out pretty well. I have clients here, but many of my clients are out of state, as I’ve always worked remotely as well as in person. During the pandemic years, my remote skills were already honed, so there was no real adjustment for me at all, and that year, our business thrived because I was at home working that way and because so many musicians were unable to gig and were looking for outlets for their music.

Many started to learn more about recording at home out of necessity, and I was able to help them improve their skills via Zoom lessons. I produce for some folks here in Nashville, but I also still do quite a bit of remote work–a lot of that work is in the Bay Area, where I know a lot of folks, and I go there several times a year to work in studios there with clients. I know this sounds like the ‘long story’, but it’s really an abbreviated version… haha.

Alright, let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
I don’t think most folks who do anything in the music industry would consider it a smooth road. It’s a pretty tough path to follow, but I’d rather have a hard road doing what I love than to spend a lifetime doing something that yields little satisfaction.

Coming from the Bay Area, I could have easily gotten into tech like many of my friends, and I do see that some things have been easier for them in purely financial ways, but we’ve (my wife and I) been able to survive comfortably, and we have the satisfaction of knowing we did it on our own terms and created a business that helps others achieve their dreams. That is pretty rewarding. It is true that I’d originally intended to be an artist/performer, and I did have to make a shift to music production to make a living, but I’d been performing for decades, so some of that allure had dissipated anyway.

I’ve always loved the studio and creating versions of songs that will be enjoyed for many listens over a long period of time. I can’t call this journey smooth, but I can’t say it’s been painful either. I think no matter what one chooses, dedication, love, and persistence are the only ways to achieve your dreams–and also–a willingness to shift paths and be flexible and open to adjacent but different opportunities if necessary.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I specialize mostly in working with solo artists and singer-songwriters–those that don’t have a steady band but want to make full productions of their songs. Because I’m a multi-instrumentalist who has had the opportunity to play many styles of music (rock, punk, jazz, world music, classical, blues, funk, etc.), it gives me a great palette to work with a vast array of artists and help them find a sound for themselves… something that fits their aesthetic and songs.

I work very hard to serve the song, and I try not to just impose ‘my thing’ or ‘my stamp’ on their art. I really keep up with technology that is always offering new sounds, new workflows, and new ways to create the best-sounding productions. I am happy playing real instruments or creating sound design and parts using sound libraries and software. I was lucky to come up at a time some consider ‘the golden age’ of recording, as I was able to learn how to do things with old analog gear, but I’m lucky to work at a time when we don’t have some of the struggles associated with that way of working.

I have a good foundation in ‘proper recording principles’, but I also have the vast amount of technology at my disposal to do things we simply could not have done back when I started. I am proud of how great my client’s work sounds on streaming platforms, next to anything else being produced by major labels or independent labels and artists.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Dedication to whatever I take on. I treat anything I do in life as the most important thing there is at the moment. I will not stop until the task is done, and it’s the best it can be.

Every song I work on gets the same attention to detail, and it gets as much attention as I’d give to my own music–sometimes more. I would also add that dependability and kindness are often overlooked in all aspects of life and that in music, as in many aspects of life, these qualities are often overlooked.

Pricing:

• Most of the work I do is currently billed hourly at $60 per hour.
• I do consulting at $125 per hour.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://b3pmusic.com/
• Instagram: @kennyschick3
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kenny.schick
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Basement3Productions